Had an American friend staying so we popped over to the Barbican to see the exhibition of works by Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown and Gordon Matta-Clark. Labelled as "Pioneers of the Downtown Scene New York 1970".
Loved the work. Relevance to this journal-blog (everything is these days). Has to be their journals.
They wrote/drew EVERYTHING in their journals. All sorts of ideas. OK I'm trying to get better at this. Maybe they found it easier as it was pre-internet days. (Still a little niggle as though my tutor is sitting on my shoulder telling me to expand my ideas more in my journal, explain how you were influenced). You can see by the development in their (the above 3 artists) journals how their ideas eventually were created. They had so many journals. Did they sit down and write this stuff everyday? I still find it difficult to create ideas this way. For me so much is spontaneous. I see things when I am there. Although I am trying to pre-plan more.
I can see my mark now: "could do better if she applied herself".
That is an impressive show, although I think the performative pieces lose a lot in being performed in the gallery instead of in the street as they originally were. Those sketches and journals add context to the work, which has it make more sense than otherwise. I think one can take away more from the show when able to see some of the development of ideas that led to the product on display.
ReplyDeleteA good aspect of the journal is it allows you to remember and analyse your ideas and the circumstances that prompted them. It helps you to know what it is you want to say and do, which will help you constantly be able to make work without having to cast about for ideas or hope something will occur to you.